Qualifying report
MotoGP Aragon GP
Aragon MotoGP: Quartararo takes pole despite hip injury
Championship leader Fabio Quartararo claimed his 10th MotoGP pole after topping Aragon Grand Prix qualifying just hours after a heavy crash in FP3 left him with a hip injury.
Lewis Duncan
Edited: Oct 17, 2020, 5:36 PM
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Quartararo was flicked from his Petronas SRT Yamaha in FP3 at Turn 14 and had to be taken to the medical centre for checks on his hip – though was found to have escaped broken bones.
FP4 pacesetter Franco Morbidelli set the early pace on his Petronas SRT Yamaha with a 1m48.090s, though he would be deposed by Q1 graduate Jack Miller.
The Pramac rider fired in a 1m47.657s on his Ducati, while Morbidelli’s second lap put him just 0.002 seconds adrift.
Two minutes later, Quartararo showed no obvious ill-effects from his FP3 crash to take over provisional pole with a 1m47.657s to lead Morbidelli by 0.089s as the first runs came to an end.
Maverick Vinales moved the goal posts with two minutes to go on the works team M1 with a 1m47.125s, and improved marginally on his final lap to a 1m47.122s.
But Quartararo would deny his Yamaha stablemate, the Frenchman digging deep for a 1m47.076s in his last effort to claim his fourth pole of 2020.
Vinales held onto second, while LCR’s Cal Crutchlow registered his first front row since last year’s US GP in third.
Morbidelli found himself shuffled off the front row at the chequered flag into fourth, with Miller and Suzuki’s Joan Mir completing the top six.
Takaaki Nakagami just missed out on a place on the second row in seventh on his LCR Honda, with Q1 pacesetter Danilo Petrucci eighth on the Ducati ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.
Espargaro and his KTM-mounted brother Pol made contact in the latter stages of Q2 at the last corner, with the latter ending up 12th behind Honda rookie Alex Marquez and the sister Suzuki of Alex Rins.
Dovizioso’s tough Aragon GP weekend took another sour turn as he was knocked out of the Q2 progression slots by his own Ducati stablemates Petrucci and Miller.
Showing a rare outburst of anger as he returned to his garage, Dovizioso will start Sunday’s race from 13th and his title hopes appear to be slipping away from him.
KTM’s Brad Binder will start alongside in 14th from KTM counterpart Iker Lecuona on the Tech 3 RC16, with Johann Zarco (Avintia) heading the struggling Pramac Ducati of Francesco Bagnaia.
Miguel Oliveira was some four tenths shy of his Tech3 teammate in 18th, with Aprilia’s Bradley Smith, Tito Rabat on the sister Avintia Ducati and Honda’s Stefan Bradl complete the field.
Q2 results:
Cla Rider Bike Time Gap 1 Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha 1'47.076 2 Maverick Viñales
Yamaha 1'47.122 0.046 3 Cal Crutchlow
Honda 1'47.305 0.229 4 Franco Morbidelli
Yamaha 1'47.317 0.241 5 Jack Miller
Ducati 1'47.413 0.337 6 Joan Mir
Suzuki 1'47.679 0.603 7 Takaaki Nakagami
Honda 1'47.759 0.683 8 Danilo Petrucci
Ducati 1'47.924 0.848 9 Aleix Espargaro
Aprilia 1'47.988 0.912 10 Alex Rins
Suzuki 1'48.035 0.959 11 Alex Marquez
Honda 1'48.189 1.113 12 Pol Espargaro
KTM 1'48.202 1.126 View full results
Q1 results:
Cla Rider Bike Time Gap 1 Danilo Petrucci
Ducati 1'47.605 2 Jack Miller
Ducati 1'47.737 0.132 3 Andrea Dovizioso
Ducati 1'47.752 0.147 4 Brad Binder
KTM 1'47.853 0.248 5 Iker Lecuona
KTM 1'48.005 0.400 6 Johann Zarco
Ducati 1'48.068 0.463 7 Francesco Bagnaia
Ducati 1'48.386 0.781 8 Miguel Oliveira
KTM 1'48.431 0.826 9 Bradley Smith
Aprilia 1'48.556 0.951 10 Tito Rabat
Ducati 1'48.558 0.953 11 Stefan Bradl
Honda 1'49.166 1.561 View full results
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